


Borrowed Time

by CelticKitsune



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, Dark Albus Dumbledore, Dark Magic, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Forbidden Magic, M/M, Reincarnation, Soul Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 12:55:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18261725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticKitsune/pseuds/CelticKitsune
Summary: Waking up in a body that wasn't his own was weird enough, however finding out that Draco Malfoy is now his twin brother is nothing short of a nightmare come true. Now he must find a way to reclaim his identity as Harry Potter, while taking Malfoy along for the ride.





	Borrowed Time

Chapter 1

Harry felt like he was floating, as though his whole body was weightless. He tried to move, to shift around or maybe see where he was, however, he soon discovered that there was nothing. Nothing around him, nothing to see, nothing to feel; it was almost as if his body no longer existed.  
  
This particular thought wasn’t as frightening to Harry as it probably should have been. He was dimly aware of the fact he should be worried that he wasn’t scared. But Harry knew he preferred this feeling, compared to the pain he had been in before.  
  
He continued to drift. He had no sense of time. He did have a few passing thoughts about his friends, wondering where they were or what they were up to at that moment, or if they knew what was happening to him. But he didn’t dwell on those thoughts as they too started to become something like a distant memory, much like the pain from before.  
  
A muffled sound startled him.  
  
It was the first noise he had heard in this strange place but it was just a noise. Harry expected it to drift away into the darkness, only to be surprised when he heard the noise again, and it was louder this time, less muffled. More noise started drifting through the darkness. Harry didn’t like it at all, it reminded him of things, of pain, of a world he had left behind.  
  
 _“No,”_ Harry said, feeling something pulling on him, wrapping around him and dragging him closer and closer to where that noise was coming from.  
  
The closer he got to the noise, the more determined he grew to not go near it. The noise meant pain, he would have to return to the pain and the suffering. He could already feel it as slowly feeling started returning to his limbs. The feeling of pins and needles all over his body had him squirming, trying to get away from the sensation, letting out a small noise of protest as moving only made the problem worse.  
  
More noise, louder noise, voices.  
  
Harry wished they would be quiet, let him go back to floating, let him go back to not feeling anything. He didn’t like any of this; he felt too weak and still far too tired to even open his eyes long enough to tell all the noise to stop.  
  
Thankfully this brief moment of being real again didn’t seem to last very long and Harry felt himself slipping back into the darkness. The voices fading out to nothingness once more.  
  
\------------x  
  
The feeling of floating didn’t return for Harry; the odd sensation of not having a body didn’t return either. He felt himself waking more often, always to those voices and the strange noises surrounding him. It became the new normal for him. Now, if he could push himself that little bit further, escape the darkness that always seemed to surround him, he could start figuring out where he was and what had happened.  
  
“I don’t believe it.” A new voice, a male one, one Harry was sure he had never heard before, this one a lot clearer than any of the others had been.  
  
Harry felt a cool hand on his forehead, fingers gently combing through his hair. He leaned into the touch, enjoying the comfort it gave him.  
  
“Come on, wake up,” the voice said pleadingly.  
  
Harry wanted to tell this person he was awake but he could feel the tiredness creeping up on him again. This time Harry fought it off. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to do as this person asked and wake up, but he felt like he had to.  
  
Harry made a soft noise, leaning further into the gentle touch on his head.  
  
“That’s it, it’s okay, I’m right here,” the voice said.  
  
Slowly, almost painfully, Harry forced his eyes open. He was greeted with the harsh light of the room and he instantly closed them again, wincing slightly. The hand on his head stopped moving, another hand took his and was squeezing it.  
  
“Come on, Faris,” the voice encouraged.  
  
Harry slowly opened his eyes again, blinking slowly as he studied the man sitting next to the bed.  
  
The man looked like he could be in his early thirties but the effects of time were already leaving their mark, from the little grey hairs that were easily visible in the short, dark brown hair, to the worry lines on the man’s forehead.  
  
“That’s my boy,” the man said, smiling softly at him as he resumed combing his fingers through Harry’s hair.  
  
Harry just continued studying this man, fairly sure he had never seen him before. He was in the process of trying to think of the best way to ask this man who he was, when another voice spoke up.  
  
“Mr. Toke.”  
  
Harry turned his attention toward the end of his bed, alarmed and confused to see a very muggle looking doctor standing there. It was only then that Harry started taking in the room he was actually in. This did nothing to calm him when he realised he was in a muggle hospital. Just seeing the monitors next to his bed was enough to clarify that.  
  
“Faris, it’s okay,” the man next to him spoke and Harry felt the larger hand squeezing his own again.  
  
Harry looked down at their joined hands and could only assume the gesture was meant to reassure him. It did nothing of the sort, however. He looked at this man once again.  
  
“...where…?” Harry tried to speak but his throat was dry and his voice sounded all wrong; it didn’t sound like his at all.  
  
“Faris.”  
  
The man was speaking again, but Harry ignored him now, his eyes darting around the room as he tried to piece together everything, tried to figure out where he was, what was going on.  
  
“Faris, you have to calm down,” the man said, the hand resting on Harry’s forehead again. But Harry pushed it away, or tried to anyway; his arms felt heavy.  
  
“...no…” Harry said, pushing weakly at the hand on his head. “...no, this… this is… wrong…” he insisted, fighting the darkness that was threatening to take him once more.  
  
“Easy now,” the doctor said.  
  
Harry blinked slowly, looking to the other side of his bed where the doctor now stood. He hadn’t even seen the man move.  
  
“...stop… don’t…” Harry said, struggling to keep his eyes open.  
  
“Get some rest, Faris,” the man said, his voice strained as if in pain.  
  
“...not… Faris… ‘m Harry,” Harry said as the darkness consumed him again.  
  
\---------------x  
  
The next time Harry woke, it was to find the room full of multiple doctors and nurses. Most of them were crowded around the other bed in the room but Harry blinked up at one of the doctors, who was standing next to him.  
  
The doctor had an aged face, tidy sandy blond hair that had been combed back to hide the thinning hair there. His eyes were focused on the clipboard in his hands, though occasionally shifted to look at the bed across the room before returning to the clipboard. Harry shifted, trying to pull himself up, and the doctor looked up from his clipboard once more, smiling when he saw Harry was awake.  
  
“Hello,” the doctor greeted.  
  
Harry just frowned at him, trying to sit up again, only to have the doctor reach out and place a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Easy now,” the doctor soothed, “I am Doctor Rayne,” heintroduced. “You have been asleep for a long time, and things may be a bit confusing and disorienting for you for a little while.”  
  
Harry blinked at him, trying to process everything being said to him. He understood that something must have happened and that he must have been in some sort of healing sleep or coma, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what had happened exactly. Staring up at the doctor, Harry hoped Dr Rayne would have the answers to the questions he wanted to ask.  
  
“What…?” Harry paused, a frown forming on his face. Reaching up, he touched his throat; it felt dry and sore.  
  
A nurse was there then with a cup of water. “Let’s sit you up now, sweetie,” she said kindly, helping Harry until he was resting with his back leaning against the headboard of the bed.  
  
After shifting some pillows around and making sure he was comfortable, the nurse held the cup of water out for him, allowing Harry to sip at it through the straw.  
  
“There, is that better?” the nurse asked.  
  
“Yes ma’am,” Harry said, though he couldn’t help but frown again at how strange his voice sounded to his own ears. “What happened?” he asked, looking up at the doctor again.  
  
“What is the last thing you remember?” Dr Rayne questioned.  
  
Harry’s frown deepened as he lowered his gaze to his lap, trying to remember anything. He remembered basic things clearly enough, such as his name, the fact that he was a wizard and went to Hogwarts, and he remembered his relatives, the Dursley’s.  
  
“It’s really fuzzy…,” he admitted, “but I remember… I think I was at home… something… something bad happened.” Harry put a hand on his head as it throbbed painfully. “I don’t know…”  
  
“It’s alright, don’t force yourself,” Dr Rayne said, putting a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “You were in a terrible accident, it is normal to not remember much.”  
  
“An accident?” Harry looked even more confused, trying to think of what kind of accident he could have been in. His thoughts were broken when the person in the other bed let out a surprisingly loud yell.  
  
“Let me go! My father will hear of this!”  
  
Harry looked over at the bed and saw one of the nurses trying to calm the other occupant of the room. Her efforts didn’t seem to be very successful though, as the boy kicked out, fighting against her hold. Dr Rayne hurried over to help, Harry’s gaze following as the doctor quickly went to the other bed. Harry couldn’t see exactly what the doctor did, but, apparently, it worked, because the boy seemed to calm down, his screaming quietened and he stopped kicking out.  
  
“There, that’s better now. No one here is going to hurt you. You and your brother were in a terrible accident, you’re in the hospital now,” Dr Rayne explained.  
  
“...no…” came the tired, barely audible reply from the other boy.  
  
Harry felt his chest tighten in sympathy. The other boy was obviously terrified and more than a little confused, something Harry could relate to, even if he wasn’t acting on it as much as the other boy was.  
  
With no doctor to hold him down, Harry sat up more on his bed, pushing himself to his knees to try and get a better a look at the other boy, to see if he might know him. He felt he should but he was sure it wasn’t a voice he had heard before.  
  
“It’s okay, Paris, try to relax,” Dr Rayne coached, still blocking Harry’s view of the other bed.  
  
“...I’m not… Paris....” the other boy mumbled quietly, Harry only just able to make out his words.  
  
“The medication will help you sleep for a while,” Dr Rayne explained to the other boy. “We’ll talk more when you wake up. Your father should be back by then.”  
  
As the Doctor moved, Harry leaned to the side, trying again to get a look at the boy on the other bed. His muscles ached and twitched, and he nearly tumbled off the bed.  
  
“Faris!” one of the nurses exclaimed.  
  
Harry jumped in surprise, looking over at the nurse to see what had made her shout, only to find her looking at him.  
  
“You should not be up,” the nurse said, hurrying over to his bed and coaxing him to lay back down.  
  
“Who’s Faris?” Harry asked.  
  
This simple question had a very strange effect on everyone in the room and Harry wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that Dr Rayne, as well as several of the nurses, were now all staring at him.  
  
\--------x  
  
Amnesia was the verdict, some sort of brain trauma caused by the crash, combined with how long he had been in a coma. Harry couldn't fully comprehend what was going on; there were too many people and too many big words being thrown around. However, there were three things he was certain of.  
  
One, he did not have amnesia. He remembered far too many things from his own life for it to have all been a dream or something made up while he was in a coma.  
  
Two, he was no longer in his own body. The discovery of this had scared him more than anything else.  
  
Harry knew that something bad must have happened, even if he didn’t remember it. He knew there had been a lot of pain, and then nothing, but he was determined to find out how this had happened. Though to do that he would have to find his way back to the wizarding world, something that was not going to be easy because the third thing he knew for sure was that he was surrounded by muggles.  
  
There were so many questions Harry wanted to ask and no one around who could give him the answers he needed. Like why he was in the wrong body. Harry knew enough about the muggle world to know you did not ask a doctor questions like that, not if you wanted to remain out of the mental hospital.  
  
So Harry played along. He did as the doctors told him, agreed he must have amnesia and even asked the man who was meant to be his father to bring pictures, something to help him ‘remember’ his life.  
  
Each day was a new struggle, trying to piece together a life that wasn’t his own, while getting used to the new body that was a lot smaller than the one he had had before. And then, of course, there was his roommate, the second boy who had been in the accident with him, the person who was supposed to be his twin brother.  
  
Harry had been unable to talk to this boy, who was mostly kept heavily sedated due to his violent outbursts, but he was sure he must know him. From the yelling the boy did, to the way he spoke, there was something unsettlingly familiar about him.  
  
Three days passed and Harry was sat on his bed, eating what the nurse had brought him as he watched the other boy laying in the bed across from his.  
  
Frowning Harry glanced toward the door before looking back at the other boy. He slowly slid from his bed, his bare feet touching the chilled floor.  
  
“Hey,” Harry said softly. “You’re awake, aren’t you?” he questioned.  
  
There was no reply from the other boy.  
  
“I saw you move,” Harry said as he moved closer to the bed. “There’s no doctors here, they’re not going to sedate you again,” he said, hoping he sounded reassuring.  
  
Blue-grey eyes slowly opened and stared up at Harry.  
  
“Who are you? And where am I?”  
  
“We’re in a hospital. The doctors think we were in some sort of accident…” Harry said, ignoring the question about who he was, wanting to know a little more about this other boy before he made himself sound crazy.  
  
The other boy slowly sat up, his arms shaking as he pushed himself into a sitting position. “I need to see my father,” he demanded.  
  
“I don’t know who your father is but I think you should be prepared; your father may not be who you think he is at the moment,” Harry said cautiously, going with his gut instinct that it was possible for this other boy to be in the same situation as he was.  
  
“What in Merlin’s name are you talking about?” the other boy demanded.  
  
“I knew it, you are a wizard.” Harry sighed in relief.  
  
“Of course, I am. Now, I demand to know what you meant by, ‘my father isn’t who I think he is’.”  
  
“I don’t know the full details myself, I don’t remember, but we’re not… us,” Harry said. “Unless you’ve always looked identical to me.”  
  
The other boy looked at him in confusion before looking down at himself, poking and prodding at his own body, examining his hands, and Harry saw the realisation of the situation sinking in.  
  
“Don’t freak out,” Harry said quickly when he thought the other boy might do just that.  
  
“Let me up!” the boy demanded, pushing the blankets away from himself. “Where is a mirror? I must see myself immediately!”  
  
“There’s a bathroom through there,” Harry pointed. “Don’t make too much noise! The nurses will come in here to find out what’s going on, make me get back in bed, and most likely sedate you again!” Harry said, following the boy quickly.  
  
The bathroom door was swung open and Harry moved to the boy’s side in an attempt to help him. The boy had already lost several shades of colour and now looked ill as he stared at himself in the mirror, a trembling hand coming up to touch his own face.  
  
“This isn’t real… it’s not real!” he said.  
  
Harry closed the bathroom door, hoping that would muffle their noise a bit better. “It’s very real, but you HAVE to calm down!”  
  
“Calm down!? How is that even possible when I look like… like…?”  
  
“I KNOW,” Harry said, placing his hands firmly on the other boy’s shoulders. “I’m in the same situation as you; this isn’t my body. I don’t know what happened or how we got here, but I do know one thing, we are in a muggle hospital-”  
  
“Muggles?” the boy all but shrieked.  
  
“Yes, muggles. We have to play along until we’re released from the hospital at the very least,” Harry insisted, locking eyes with the other boy, who nodded slowly. Harry could only guess that he was going into shock. It was a lot to take in all at once.  
  
“Why should I? Once I tell my father…”  
  
“Your real father isn’t going to know who you are, not looking like this anyway. None of these muggles would even know how to go about getting in contact with a wizarding family,” Harry pointed out, gently manoeuvering the other boy away from the mirror. “You have to trust me on this. If you say anything about this, about us not being in our own bodies, they’ll lock you up, thinking you’re insane,” Harry explained, hoping he could get the other boy to understand the situation they were in.  
  
“What’s your name?” the boy asked.  
  
“My real name or the names of the bodies we’re in?” Harry asked, smiling when he received a glare from the other boy.  
  
“My name is Draco, what is your REAL name?” Draco asked.  
  
Harry jerked back as if he had been burned, staring at the boy with wide eyes, instinctively trying to pick out any feature that would have been familiar, something to tell him that this boy was Draco.  
  
“... Malfoy?” Harry questioned carefully.  
  
“Yes. Now, who are you?” Draco demanded.  
  
“I… I’m, uh, Faris,” Harry said.  
  
Draco studied him for a long moment, then nodded once.  
  
“Very well then, Faris, you seem to know more about what is going on here at the moment, so I will listen to you, for now,” Draco said, sounding a little more like his calmer, pompous self.  
  
“Gee, thanks.” Harry rolled his eyes, not believing his luck that he was stuck in this situation with Malfoy of all people. “First, we should get back to our beds. The nurses are going to be in soon to check on us and if they find us both missing…” Harry trailed off.  
  
“How much do you know about what is going on?” Draco asked.  
  
“Not much. I woke up here a couple of days ago. I don’t know where we are but I do know a bit about the lives of these two boys whose bodies we’ve taken over,” Harry said.  
  
“And we’re sure this isn’t some kind of strange dream?” Draco questioned.  
  
There was a soft knock on the door to the bathroom and Harry froze, motioning for Draco to be quiet.  
  
“Y-yes?” Harry called out.  
  
“Is that you Faris? Is your brother in there with you?” the night nurse asked through the door.  
  
“Yes,” Harry answered. “We’re both okay.”  
  
“Can I come in?” the nurse requested.  
  
Harry moved over, opening the door a crack. He looked out at the nurse.  
  
“Are you two okay?” she asked.  
  
“We’re fine. Paris woke up so I was taking care of him,” Harry answered, and the nurse smiled sweetly at him, gently pushing the door open further.  
  
“That was very sweet of you. Why don’t you two come back out here and get into bed,” the nurse suggested. “I can call the doctor on duty to come look over your brother.”  
  
Harry looked behind him at Draco, who hadn’t moved an inch, motioning for him to follow. Draco glared at him, then at the nurse, who was waiting just outside the bathroom for them. Rolling his eyes, Harry went over, took Draco’s hand, and pulled him from the bathroom.  
  
“Just do as they say, it won’t be bad,” Harry whispered.  
  
“Says you,” Draco said huffily, looking apprehensively at the bed surrounded by weird gadgets he had never seen before in his life.  
  
“If you don’t behave they’re going to put you to sleep again, so do your best to not freak out,” Harry told him, half tempted to leave Draco on his own to deal with everything. But never once, in all the years he had known the pompous boy, had he ever seen him look so frightened. It was for that reason alone that Harry remained by his side, though it probably helped that the body Draco was currently inhabiting didn’t look a thing like the Malfoy he knew.  
  
Harry watched as Draco slowly got back into the bed. He looked tense and very unsure about the situation they were both in.  
  
“You okay?” Harry asked once the nurse had left.  
  
“No, I’m not okay!” Draco snapped, though he kept his voice down. “I’m not supposed to be here!”  
  
“Neither am I,” Harry reminded him. “I know you don’t trust me, but for right now, just swallow your pride and follow my lead.”  
  
Draco frowned as he stared at him. “Who ARE you?” he asked.  
  
“I told you,” Harry said.  
  
“You’re real name is not Faris,” Draco snapped, staring hard at Harry.  
  
Harry sighed and shook his head, keeping his voice low as he spoke. “You’re not going to like it, so for now, just shut up and follow my lead, okay? Unless you fancy being locked in a muggle hospital for the rest of your life.” Harry turned away from Draco, looking toward the nurse that had come back into the room with the night doctor.  
  
“You’re not the same doctor as before,” Harry said bluntly as he looked at the unfamiliar face.  
  
The lady chuckled and shook her head. “No, I am Doctor Jackie Cooke,” she introduced, coming to stand by the bed next to Harry. “Now, Faris, why don’t you go get back in bed, it’s still quite late.”  
  
“No,” Harry said stubbornly, standing closer to Draco. The doctor smiled fondly at him, obviously used to dealing with stubborn children.  
  
“I know you’re worried for your brother but I promise we won’t harm him.” Dr Jackie looked at Draco next. “It is nice to see you awake, and calm. When the nurse told me you were awake, I was afraid you might have another episode.”  
  
Draco snorted but thankfully kept his mouth shut, and Harry was grateful that the other boy was doing as asked.  
  
“He doesn’t know what’s going on,” Harry said, gaining the doctor’s attention again. “He kept waking up and not knowing where he was,” he explained, which wasn’t exactly a lie. But as Harry hoped, it seemed to do the trick, as Dr Jackie’s features seemed to smooth out more and she nodded her understanding.  
  
“Well, it’s a good thing he had his brother here to keep him calm this time then.” Dr Jackie smiled, gently placing a hand on Harry’s head.  
  
Harry fought off the urge to flinch from the unfamiliar gentle touch, though from the sympathetic look Dr Jackie gave him, he wasn’t sure he succeeded.  
  
“Now, Paris, I’m just going to check a few things, then you two can get some more sleep,” Dr Jackie said, taking out a penlight and leaning forward.  
  
Draco jerked back, staring at the pen with wide eyes. “What is that?” he demanded.  
  
“It’s just a light so I can check your eyes,” Dr Jackie explained.  
  
“You can see my eyes just fine without that thing,” Draco said, shifting further back on the bed and away from Dr Jackie.  
  
Harry sighed and climbed up onto the bed with Draco. “It’s not going to hurt you, they just have to shine a light in your eyes,” Harry explained.  
  
“Why?” Draco asked, continuing to glare at the penlight.  
  
“I need to make sure that your pupils are functioning properly. It’s a simple procedure to see if you have hurt your brain,” Dr Jackie said. “Once I do that, I will let you and your brother get back to sleep.”  
  
Draco glanced over toward Harry. Seeing the other boy nodding his head once, Draco sighed.  
  
“Fine, get it over with,” he said, waving his hand.  
  
Dr Jackie smiled and nodded, holding up the penlight again and shining it in Draco’s eyes. “Now look here,” she instructed.  
  
Draco grudgingly did as he was told, rubbing at his eyes once the light was moved away.  
  
“All things considered, you seem to be doing just fine,” Dr Jackie said as she stood up.  
  
“Why wouldn’t I be fine?” Draco questioned.  
  
“I’ll answer all your questions in the morning. You try and get a little more sleep, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on you boys while breakfast is being served.” Dr Jackie laid Draco back down and pulled the blanket over him, before turning toward Harry and making sure he was tucked into his bed as well.  
  
The two boys waited until the door was closed before they both sat up in bed again. Harry looked over toward Draco, as the other boy stared back at him.  
  
“What is going on?” Draco demanded.  
  
“I really don’t know,” Harry admitted.  
  
“Then at least tell me who you are. I’ll not listen to any more orders from you until I have that information,” Draco insisted.  
  
Harry sighed and closed his eyes. “You’re not going to like it,” he said softly.  
  
“I already don’t like any of this. There is nothing you could say that would make this worse,” Draco insisted.  
  
Harry stared at him. “I’m Harry Potter,” he said, watching as that information sunk in.  
  
“Alright,” Draco said, turning a shade paler. “I was wrong.”  
  
TBC  
  
Well, I’ve done it again. Here is yet ANOTHER fanfic to keep up with, haha. Though to be fair, I have been working on this one for over a year now, and now that chapter 2 is nearly complete and I have a better idea of where this is going, I figured it's time to post it.  
Another good reason for posting this is to show people I’m not dead! And I am still working on Harry Potter stuff! :D TMNT hasn’t taken over my life completely!  
  
  
  


 


End file.
